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Terence Penn Khan, who was arrested in connection with the ongoing Anglophone crisis, has been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. According to a decision by the Yaoundé military tribunal, he is also expected to pay a fine of 5 Million FCFA.
He was found guilty of complicity to secession, complicity in financing terrorism, hostility to the fatherland, complicity to incite rebellion.
But, before he was slammed the sentence, Penn Terence penned down an emotion provoking letter which he also read out to the hearing of the entire court.
His letter opens, “Dear Madam President and Government Commissioner (Prosecutor), of this Tribunal.
As this process draws to the end, I think it is time for me to give you my final word before you pass your long awaited judgment. Before your verdict, I wish to remark that:
The abduction, incarceration and trial that have gone through in this tribunal, is political and challenges the foundational basis of this country-Cameroon.
Trials of civilians by a military tribunal contravene the right to a fair trial by a competent, independent and partial court.
Penn Terence also stated that his trial has been illegal from the start, questioning why he was “abducted” for allegations of crimes committed in Bamenda but tried in a military tribunal in Yaoundé and not in Bamenda.
According to Penn’s letter, the charges against him have all been trumped up charges and that the court did not present proofs to any of the charges, “reasons being that they do not exist,” he said.
“I am neither a terrorist nor a secessionists but the political nature of the trial makes it possible for the court to slam the “Guilty verdict” on me. If the term or word terrorism is an attribute to people and individuals that decry social injustice and inequality, then find me guilty again because these are the reasons for which I stand before you today. Where then is justice that we seek?” he questioned.
Penn Terence audaciously told the court that, “No tribunal including the one over which you preside can solve the “Anglophone problem” in this country because it is political. It requires more of political will than court cases to see it through.”
He also intimated that Cameroon is a state of law and that it could do better than this.
Che Benjamin and Ambeizi Andrew, were also sentenced to 11 years in jail.
His letter has reportedly caused emotional reactions from Anglophone Cameroonians especially, who have been demanding ceaselessly, the release of all Anglophones that have been jailed in connection with the ongoing crisis.
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